**Smart Final Year Project Archive System Using Laravel Framework with Email Notification (SFYPAS)**

**Abidah Mat Taib<sup>1</sup>**\*, **Noor Atirah Mohd** **Shukri<sup>2</sup>**, **Nurul Hidayah Ahmad Zukri**<sup>3</sup>**, Norlizawati Ghazali**<sup>4</sup>**,**

<sup>1,2,3</sup>Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia  
<sup>4</sup> Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

Corresponding author: \*Author 1 email

Received Date: \*date

Accepted Date: \*date

ABSTRACT

***Final Year Project (FYP) is a compulsory requirement for graduation of every bachelor programme in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Finding a topic for the final year project is quite challenging. However, being able to access previous FYP thesis helps students to generate some ideas. Supervisors and lecturers can also determine whether the proposed project is already among the previous research project or a new one. Unfortunately, the past FYP thesis is usually kept in a specific thesis room. Hence, this will make going to the thesis room and searching the thesis for references quite burdensome. The lack of electronic management for FYP thesis causes several problems in arrangement and search methods. This project aims to develop Smart Final Year Project Archive System (SFYPAS) using Laravel Framework and evaluate the system in terms of technology acceptance model (TAM). SFYPAS is developed using Laravel framework and the methodology used throughout the project is using Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The system tested based on its functionality, user acceptance with TAM and heuristic evaluation by an expert. The system was tested on thirty respondents who shared their feedback by answering a set of questionnaires upon completing the testing. The result shows that the mean for user acceptance with TAM in terms of perceived ease of use is 4.27, while perceived usefulness is 4.47. Thus, it shows that the respondents are satisfied with the system in terms of its perceived usefulness. In conclusion, this research has achieved the objectives where it eases the user by providing a web-based smart archive system as a platform to access the past FYP thesis. For future work, the system can be improved by adding a search engine that implements any searching algorithm to yield a better result.***

*Keywords: Web-based application, Archive, FYP thesis, Laravel Framework*

# INTRODUCTION

In Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Final Year Project (FYP) is a compulsory requirement of graduation in bachelor programmes in the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Science (FSKM). Normally, every third-year student should register for their project under the course code CSP600 and CSP650. It is a two-semester long activity in which every student has to complete their projects under the supervision of one of the lecturers in FSKM.

Each branch of UiTM in Malaysia has its own management system to manage and monitor information regarding the FYP thesis that have been done every semester. Nevertheless, the management of the information process is somehow very rigid when some branches are still using a paper-based system or manual system, especially for managing completed FYP projects which will cause many problems in the future such as missing information, and data manipulation. Generally, the process and procedure involving paper-based system is time consuming as the students need to go to the supervisors' office or thesis room to view and get access to the projects. The students found that it is burdensome for them to acquire the sources that they need, and it causes difficulty for the students to generate ideas or topics that they want to propose for their current FYP projects since they need to manually search the previous research or projects from the supervisors’ or thesis room.

Besides, supervisors face the difficulty in storing and managing the FYP thesis because each supervisor have many supervisees to be handled. Supervisors also encountered difficulties in retrieving their supervision history. Most supervisors need the information regarding their supervision such as the students' list that they have supervised and the information of the FYP thesis. This information is vital for supervisors to update their current curriculum vitae (CV) and for promotional purposes. However, technological advancement has offered a better option for the information storage and management. Most associations now are applying a paperless documentation strategy to decrease the need to store the monstrous sum of physical papers and save their overall running expenses (Abidin & Hussin, 2018).

As the number of the students increases every year and there are many projects submitted, the coordinators have difficulty monitoring and managing which topics or titles that have already been submitted. There are possibilities that the title of the projects may overlap with other students. This problem will affect students’ marks, should it occur, as overlapping title decreases the novelty of a project.

Thus, an archive system needs to be implemented to solve the management of completed FYP projects problem, especially to forecast for the future research area in faculty which is related to the potential of industry linkages, graduate employability and workshop. It is because sometimes the administrator might overlook a particular research area when forecasting for the future area of research in the faculty. Administrators also face difficulty in managing and giving recommendations on which workshop should be conducted in the university, especially for the FYP students, in assisting them to successfully complete the FYP.

A research conducted by the Faculty of Information Technology and Computing in Rabigh, King Abdulaziz University on 62 students indicates that 91.9% students read the previous students’ FYP thesis and 95.2% students feel that by creating a website for archiving students’ project in the faculty is a good idea (Malik, et al., 2018). Therefore, a better way to manage FYP thesis in UiTM Perlis is by applying a paperless documentation method implemented using a web-based system on Laravel framework.

# LITERATURE REVIEW 

An archive stores published and unpublished documents and these documents are unique, specialised or rare within any format (Edzan, 2015) usually PDF and Docs. It means that archive is a compilation of records produced or collected by one person or institution and chosen for lifelong protection as proof of tasks that individuals and institutions have been done.

Archiving is crucial for managing information records where the information collected by an institution or individual might need to be meticulously managed and monitored to be appropriately utilised. The compilation of records that is not archived is rigid to locate, not secure and appropriately disseminated if stored in a local environment such as employees' laptops. According to Securedatamgt (2015), the top three importance of archiving are preventing data loss, legal requirements and increase security.

# This project's web technology includes markup language and multimedia packages where PHP is used as a programming language that generates dynamic Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), Laravel framework and MVC architecture.

## Laravel Framework

It is an open-source PHP web framework developed by Taylor Otwell in 2011 that pursues the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern. This framework is powerful and straightforward, which is easy to understand for beginners. Laravel gives authentication, routing, caching, great database migration tools that enable developers to build complex applications (Che, Fan & Zhan, 2017).

## MVC Architecture

Model-View-Controller architecture is a common design architecture utilised in website design or web application development (Verma, 2014). The MVC pattern breaks into three major roles such as model, view and controller. Figure 1 shows the MVC architecture.

![](145-1-395-1-4-20200831_media/media/image1.png)

Figure 1: MVC Architecture

## Model

The model is a piece of the system that controls all the tasks associate with data such as validation, authentication and database. It contains techniques to access data from the databases and makes a reusable class library available to minimise the difficulty of the code that majority developer faces (Pop & Altar, 2014).

## View

The view is usually known as templates or web design because it controls how the data is exhibited and provides data gathering methods from users when they interact with it. The technologies majorly used in views are CSS, JavaScript and HTML (Pop & Altar, 2014).

## Controller

The controller manages an event handling where the event can be generated when a user interacts with the application or a system process. The controller will respond to the requests with the data requested. For example, the controller retrieves the required data by interacting with the model and it generates the data to the view (Pop & Altar, 2014).

# Related Work

There are three existing systems that have applied the archive in managing the FYP thesis in universities. The systems are considered based on the type of users and the functions offered. These three systems related to the Smart Final Year Project Archive System (SFYPAS) are explained below.

## Web-based Archive Management and Student Guidance for Final Year Project (GPOrganize) 

GPOrganize provides an archive system of previous FYP thesis that is used by King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. The system is offered only for the university students to search the related FYP thesis as their references. There are two types of users such as students and administrators. After the students have completed their FYP thesis, they need to add their project for archive purposes. So, the upcoming students will be able to view their projects as references. The students need to login into the system in order to get the ability to access the archived thesis. The system displays lists of all available thesis and the details according to the students' keyword. Then, students also can download the report. Additional functions of this system are it provides the possibility for students to communicate with their supervisors, student guidance in the form of templates and guidelines, and attachments sort of lists of essential links to external resources (Malik, et al., 2018).

## eTheses of Universiti Utara Malaysia 

eTheses is a system used to store students' thesis from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). This system is managed by the university library which is Perpustakaan Sultanah Bahiyah. There are two types of users such as students and staff. eTheses has limited access for users which means users from any academic university in Malaysia unable to access this system. Besides, this system used open access repository which is Eprint3 that is flexible with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (Etheses, 2019).

## Elmtiyaz of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia 

Elmtiyaz is a system that stores all types of university records such as examination papers, conference or workshop items and academic project papers. This system is not restricted to outsiders, where it allows users from any academic university in Malaysia to access the system. There are two types of users such as students and administrators. The additional function in this system is it provides notification through email if there are new resources updated onto the system. To get this notification, users need to signup first by entering their email address. Besides, this system uses an open-access repository which is Dspace as a digital archives system (Elmtiyaz, 2019).

## Summary of Related Work is listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison of Related work with SFYPAS

<table>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th><h2 id="title">Title</h2></th>
<th><h2 id="tool-and-technology-used">Tool and Technology Used</h2></th>
<th><h2 id="functions">Functions</h2></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td><h2 id="gporganize">GPOrganize</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="php-macromedia-dreamweaver-xampp">PHP, Macromedia Dreamweaver, XAMPP</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="allow-students-to-archive-fyp-thesis-and-the-possibility-to-download-the-previous-fyp-thesis.">Allow students to archive FYP thesis and the possibility to download the previous FYP thesis.</h2></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><h2 id="etheses">eTheses</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="open-source-repository-eprint3">Open-source repository: Eprint3</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="limited-access-to-the-archive-thesis-for-users-from-any-universities-except-uum.">Limited access to the archive thesis for users from any universities except UUM.</h2></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><h2 id="elmtiyaz">Elmtiyaz</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="open-source-repository-dspace">Open-source repository: Dspace</h2></td>
<td><h2 id="provides-access-to-academic-project-papers-conference-or-workshop.">Provides access to academic project papers, conference or workshop.</h2></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><h2 id="smart-final-year-project-archive-system-using-laravel-framework-sfypas">Smart Final Year Project Archive System Using Laravel Framework (SFYPAS)</h2></td>
<td><p><em>Programming Language:</em></p>
<p>PHP, JavaScript, AJAX</p>
<p><em>Web Application method:</em> Laravel Framework</p>
<p>Platforms to develop the system: Bracket,</p>
<p><em>Implementation of web application:</em> XAMPP</p>
<p><em>Deployment of web application:</em> Internet Explorer, Chrome</p></td>
<td><p><strong>Similarities features:</strong></p>
<p>- Provides archive for the previous FYP thesis.</p>
<p>- Provides the possibility to download the previous FYP thesis.</p>
<p><strong>Unsimilarities features:</strong></p>
<p>- Supervisors can search for their history of supervision.</p>
<p>- Coordinators can monitor the detail of FYP thesis of her/his student.</p>
<p>- Examiners can obtain the details about the previous FYP thesis to avoid duplication.</p>
<h2 id="administrators-can-obtain-the-information-and-view-the-current-and-previous-percentage-of-the-research-area-in-the-faculty.">- Administrators can obtain the information and view the current and previous percentage of the research area in the faculty.</h2></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

# PROPOSED SYSTEM

The SFYPAS was developed to store and manage the FYP thesis done by the previous FYP students of FSKM UiTM Perlis by providing an archive system that will help filter the previous FYP thesis. Three different users can access the system namely students, lecturers (supervisor, coordinator and examiner) and administrators who have their own purpose and tasks. Selected lecturer or staff within the faculty will be offered to be the administrator of the system. Through this system, the supervisors, coordinators, and examiners can view their supervision, coordinate and examine history respectively. The students can archive their FYP thesis. After archiving a thesis, the supervisor needs to view the uploaded thesis by their supervisees and choose to approve or reject it. An email notification will be sent to alert his or her supervisees about the response. If the thesis does not meet the standard requirement, the supervisor can reject the uploaded thesis.

This project used a web-based system as a platform and also implemented Laravel Framework. The programming language for Laravel Framework mostly in PHP including Object Oriented PHP. The methodology that was chosen and applied in this project is Waterfall Model as it covers several phases such as requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing and documentation. The typical design used were Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and Data Flow Diagram (DFD). Context diagram is a diagram that consists of a process and illustrates the scope of a system. It is also the highest level of DFD that configures all inputs to the system or output of the system where it gives illustration to the whole system (Aminin, Dacholfany, Mujib, & Huda, 2018). Figure 1 shows the context diagram that represents the whole process in the archive system. Data Flow Diagram for the web application is shown in Figure 2.

> Figure 1: Context Diagram

Figure 2: Data Flow Diagram

*Figure 3 shows the homepage interface of SFYPAS.* There are three different users who are student, lecturer and administrator. Once the user login into the system, the system will check the authentication and compare it with the database. If the login process is successful, the user can use the system based on tasks assigned for each role.

*Figure 4 shows the interface of the archive thesis.* The students use this page to archive their complete thesis into the system for the future used. Students need to archive their completed FYP thesis into this system for future use by entering the details in the form such as title, abstract, supervisor, coordinator, and examiner name. If the form is incomplete, the system will inform the users with error message popup.

| ![](145-1-395-1-4-20200831_media/media/image4.emf) | ![](145-1-395-1-4-20200831_media/media/image5.emf) |
| -------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| *Figure 3: Homepage Interface Design*              | *Figure 4: Interface of archive thesis*            |

*Figure 5 shows the interface for the searching page where students and lecturers can search for completed FYP projects that have been uploaded by the previous students.* Figure 6 shows the interface for FYP projects' details after users click the view button on the searching page. This page shows the FYP projects’ details such as title, author, abstract, research area, date published, and supervisors’ and coordinators’ name. Therefore, it allows the students and lecturers to know more about the details for a particular project.

| ![](145-1-395-1-4-20200831_media/media/image6.emf) | ![](145-1-395-1-4-20200831_media/media/image7.jpeg)    |
| -------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| *Figure 5: Interface for the searching page*       | *Figure 6: Interface for detail search of FYP project* |

*SFYPAS also has a feature that* helps the administrator add numerous students and lecturers by using an excel document. The administrator can upload the excel document filled with students' and lecturers' information then upload it through the system. Besides, the system also provides a register data page for a single student or lecturer where the administration can use it despite using the excel document upload that is suitable for registering massive data.

# Moreover, the system also has an email notification where it will notify supervisors when their supervisees have requested to archive a new thesis where the supervisors need to approve or reject. Then, students will be notified about their archived thesis' status whether it has been approved or rejected. Besides, the system also can be accessed through a smartphone which is easy for users. Thus, various testing has been done to ensure the efficiency of this system.

# result and analysis

This project uses a set of questionnaires that are met face-to-face and given online to the user to evaluate the system in terms of its heuristic evaluation, functionality, and user acceptance testing. The user must test the system first in order to get the user's feedback from the system. There are ten questions asked in the user acceptance testing part to achieve the objectives of this project.

## Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU)

Figure 7 shows the line graph that illustrates the perceived ease of use. 60% of the respondents agreed that learning to operate the "Smart Final Year Project Archive System" is easy, while 33.3% and 6.7% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively. Then, 56.7% of the respondents agreed that it is easy to interact with the system while 33.3% and 10% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively. Next, 53.3% of the respondents agreed that the system is clear and understandable, while 36.7% and 10% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively. Besides, 46.7% of respondents agreed that it is easy to become skillful when using the system while 36.7% and 16.7% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively. Lastly, 46.7% of the respondents agreed that the system is easy to use while 40% and 13.3% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively.

Figure 7: Result of Perceived Ease of Use.

Hence, it can be inferred that the respondents agreed that the system is easy to be operated, easy to interact, clear and understandable, easy to become skillful and easy to use.

## Perceived Usefulness (PU)

Figure 8 shows the result of perceived usefulness.

Figure 8: Result of Perceived Usefulness.

As shown in the graph, 46.7% of the respondents strongly agreed that the "Smart Final Year Project Archive System" enables respondents to view all the details clearly and quickly while 43.3% and 10% voted for agreed and average respectively. Then, 46.7% of the respondents agreed that the system enhances the effectiveness by receiving email notification while 40% and 13.3% voted for strongly agreed and average respectively.

Besides, 50% of the respondents strongly agreed that the system also reduces the time spent on archiving and searching the thesis processes, while 46.7% and 3.3% agreed and average respectively. Next, 50% of the respondents agreed that the system increases the respondents' productivity. Lastly, 50% of the respondents strongly agreed that the system's overall process is useful, while 36.7% and 13.3% agreed and average respectively.

Therefore, this finding shows that the respondents are agreed that the system is useful to use, can accomplish their task quickly, enhances the effectiveness of their life by receiving the email notification, reduce time spent and increase their productivity.

## Performance Testing (Load/Response Time)

Load/Respond time testing has been conducted in order to determine whether the load time of the system is acceptable or not. For this test, the "Student List" page is chosen to be tested because this page retrieves most data from the database and the page is being tested on one device which is a laptop. The higher the response time, the lower the performance for the system. The result is being illustrated in the table form consists of the number of times reloading the page, average time, fastest time and slowest time. Table 2 shows the load/response time testing result.

Table 2: Load/Response time on the Student List Page

| **Number of Times** | **Fastest Time (ms)** | **Slowest Time (s)** | **Average Time (ms)** |
| ------------------- | --------------------- | -------------------- | --------------------- |
| 10                  | 368.54                | 2.04                 | 473.301               |
| 20                  | 287.37                | 1.44                 | 432.29                |
| 30                  | 309.85                | 1.61                 | 359.419               |

Based on the result, the load/response time of the system is acceptable. The result shows that the average response time is below 500 ms which is considered fast because getting a response time on a heavy load page under 500 ms is fast. However, the result might be varied because of the devices that the user uses. Besides, the test was conducted only using one concurrent user. The higher number of concurrent users, the higher the response time users will get.

**CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION**

This research was carried out to design and develop a web-based smart archive system that has the ability to archive a new thesis and search uploaded thesis based on keywords entered by the users. *SFYPAS also can provide the supervision history where it will show the lists of students that have been supervised for a particular lecturer. It can also display the statistics of current and previous research areas under the privilege of the administrator. This information may help the FYP coordinator (system administrator) determine the distribution of students in specific research fields. T*his research has achieved the research objectives and it is proven that the system can satisfy users. Nevertheless, the system can be improved to be more efficient, effective and user-friendly by considering certain human-computer interaction values. An efficient SFYPAS will enable the administrator (FYP coordinator) to forecast the potential focus research fields to make any plan or preparation to ensure all the research areas are strategically distributed so that the administrator does not overlook for the specific research area in the faculty.

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